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Monday, 2 June 2014

Are Early Medieval Times Called the Dark Ages Because People Were Ignorant?

Let's
first look at when the Dark Ages began.

(Wikimedia)

In
476AD the last emperor of Rome, Romulus Augustulus, was removed from
the throne. This is taken by most historians as the date of the fall
of Rome, although it was in decline long before that. Whatever the
drawbacks, the Roman Empire established peace and the rule of law
across an enormous area. Art and culture flourished. The fall of Rome
left a huge vacuum.

There
was no government or organisation, and war broke out as each area
sought to establish itself again. People moved out of the towns and
back to farming, more concerned about where the next meal was coming
from than worrying about writing things down. In the 18th
century the period from the fall of Rome to about 1000AD was labelled
the Dark Ages because little was known about it. What was known was
mostly barbarism.

(Wikimedia)

But
archaeology has since shown us a rich and cultural society, and the
period also saw the rise of monasticism, where learning was preserved
and encouraged. The monasteries were responsible for saving the
treasures of classical literature - along with the Holy Scriptures -
and preserving them for the future.

The
other change to the Dark Ages in more recent times is the date they
ended. The general opinion for the end of the whole Middle Ages was
the Renaissance, roughly 1500AD. Historians are making cases for
earlier and earlier Renaissances. There is the 'Renaissance of the
Twelfth Century,' the 'Ottonian Renaissance' of the Holy Roman
Empire in the 900s, and even looking further back to the 'Carolingian
Renaissance' under the first Holy Roman Emperor, Charlemagne, in the
late eighth and early ninth centuries.

So
to answer the original question, not only were the Dark Ages not
really dark, but with all these new Renaissances being discovered, it
seems they weren't really there!